Babysitting
by rara314
Summary: Mako and Bolin watch over Mako and Korra's two year old daughter, Min. Prompt 2
1. Part 1

"Are you sure you two can handle her for the day? She's starting to become a little too much to handle especially at her age..." Korra tries to warn the two brothers. Mako didn't really know how much of a handful their daughter really was since he was always working, sometimes even in the wee hours of the night. And Bolin didn't really get to see Min at her worst so of course he was going to think he could handle babysitting.

"Absolutely Korra," Mako says with confidence and a smirk to match. "I'm sure Bolin and I can handle Min, right Bo?"

Both Korra and Mako look to Bolin for his response, "Definitely, it'll be a piece of cake!"

Korra looks at Bolin doubtfully then shakes her head smiling. Before she leaves, she gives her husband a kiss on the lips and their daughter a kiss on the head, "I guess I'll see you guys later then." She turns to leave but before she does so, she waves to them goodbye. "Bye."

Once Bolin and Mako hear the click of the door shutting, the brother's plan out the day. "We should totally go out or something. I'm sure you're sick of being locked up in buildings all day Mako."

"I would love to go out Bo but we can't. Korra doesn't want Min going outside for a long time; she thinks that she'll get sick from it. I have to respect her wishes." Mako takes his daughter out of Bolin's arms. "Besides, you know Korra; she'll probably use her fire bending on me when she found out we took her out."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," says Bolin with disappointment in his voice, "But she doesn't have to know…"

"No way, I can't do that to Korra." His attention goes to his 'angel'; is what he calls his daughter. She had his eyes but Korra's chocolate brown hair, "Are you hungry angel?"

She nods as she rubs her eye. His daughter was just starting to talk, she didn't talk much but when she did, she was very vocal. She knew what a lot of words meant but chose not to talk for some reason; Mako thought she was just shy. But Korra thought it was just because she didn't need to talk yet since she got everything she wanted without saying a word.

"Why yes I am, what do you have?" Bolin asks, he thought Mako was asking him. "The mention of cake made me hungry."

Mako smirks, "You're always hungry, plus I was talking to Min. I hope she doesn't get her eating habits from you." He walks to the cabinet to see what she was able to have; but he didn't see anything she was able to have. He sighs, "Bo, can you watch her for awhile? I have to stop by the market to buy some fruit and rice for her."

"Umm, I can't. I was going to talk to Narook real quick about sponsoring our team maybe, sorry." Bolin smiles.

"Why can't you do that later though?" Mako questions as he tries to find Min's binky.

"Narook's going to be leaving the shop early today so I don't think I'll get another good time to talk to him."

"Oh," Mako replies, a little distracted until he finally found her binky in her toy basket. "I can talk to him for you if you want Bo, it's no big deal. All you have to do is stay here with Min."

"It's not that easy Mako, I have to tell him something that you don't even know yet. I want to keep it a surprise." Bolin hinted.

Mako raised an eyebrow, "Alright, fine. How about taking her with you while I pick up a few things?"

Bolin smirks, "That I can do for you bro."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Mako turns to get his jacket off the rack, "We better get going then." Mako gives Min to her uncle as he shrugs on his coat. Once his coat is buttoned and he's ready to go, he turns to Bolin, "Are you ready to go?"

Bolin and they start walking down the stairs, past the lobby, and out onto the street. Lucky for them, the market and Narook's were near each other. Mako didn't want to stay out for long because of Korra's worrying with Min, he didn't want her to know they were out. Her irrational fear for Min getting sick was starting to get a little ridiculous.

They reach the front of Harook's but before Bolin could walk in, Mako stops him, "Be careful with her. Oh and could you buy some rice and Korra some of those noodles she likes? She will most likely be cranky when she gets home and maybe those could get her on her good side." He hands Bolin a few yuons, "I'll meet you back here when I'm done." Mako smirks and ruffles Min's hair before he leaves.

"Okay," Bolin mumbles to Min as he walks through the front doors. "Isn't it exciting to be out of your house? It's an even better experience because you're with Uncle Bolin; we're going to have fun." He smiles down at her before he takes a look around, he notices that there was no one except Narook. "Hey Narook! I was meaning to talk to you!"

"Hello Bolin," Narook looks up from washing the table tops. "What can I do for you today?"

"Just for an order of the usual except one bowl and to go, oh and a bowl of rice to go also for this little one." Bolin smiles to Narook.

"Coming right up!" Narook goes into the kitchen and immediately starts cooking, "Is that your niece you talk so much about?"

Bolin nods and laughs, "Yeah, how did you know?"

"Well, I can see your brother in her. She looks JUST like Mako." He mixes in some ingredients into Korra's noodles, "I wouldn't be surprised if she acted just like him too."

Bolin laughs again, "She is actually starting to, but you can see Korra in her too. But, she has my appetite."

Narook is the one to laugh now, "I bet. So what were you going to ask me? You mentioned it was something about pro-bending?"

Bolin almost couldn't hear what he said because Min started crying very loudly. Bolin gently bounces her up and down and he tries shushing to her quietly but that just made her cry even more. "Sorry about this Narook." He shouts over the cries.

"That's fine," Narook shouts back, "What's your question?"

"Hang on a sec." Bolin notices that her binky fell onto his arm. He picks it up and puts it into her mouth, she finally becomes quiet. He gives out a sigh of relief, "Okay, so my question is whether or not you could be able to-" Interrupted by Min's crying again, he tries shushing her again. "I was wondering if you were able to sponsor the Fire Ferrets this season." He shouts over the cries.

"Of course Bolin! I do every year, why is this year different?" Narook calls out.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I'm getting a promotion so that means I won't be on the actual team anymore." Bolin continues shouting, "I thought the only reason why you supported us was because of Mako and I!"

"That was partly the reason; the other part is because you guys are a great team despite the circumstances." Narook reassures him as he finishes his cooking. He puts the food in two separate bowls and puts them in a bag for Bolin.

"Thanks Narook, I really do appreciate it! I'll talk to you later!" He grabs the tiny bag with the arm that wasn't holding the baby, and gets out of the shop, "Please stop crying, it's alright. I thought you actually liked Uncle Bolin." He pouts thinking it was his fault for making his niece cry. "We'll be home soon enough."

Bolin continues bouncing her and shushing her but Min still cries, harder even. "I'm begging you, please." Bolin notices that everyone was starting to stare and he didn't like it when that happened to him so he turns around towards the shop. He starts making funny faces to see if that would help her stop. And it worked, "Yes," Bolin says to himself. A few seconds later, the crying starts up again.

He groans in frustration, but a tap on his shoulder makes him stop doing his faces. When he turns around he's relieved to see Mako. Maybe he'll know what to do. "Mako! She just won't stop crying, I've tried and nothing seems to be helping."

Mako frowns in concern when he puts his bag down, "Hand her to me, please." He tells Bolin as he holds his hands out to take her. When Bolin does so, Mako does the same thing Bolin was doing earlier. "Shh," Mako comforts her, "It's okay angel, daddy's here. Shh."

Almost immediately, she stops crying and starts sucking her thumb. Mako smiles down at his daughter and kisses her forehead. Min then burrows her head into her father's chest, and closes her eyes, his voice soothing her.

Bolin's mouth drops, "How did you do that?" He couldn't believe how easily Mako calmed her, "I did the same thing and she just kept screaming!"

Mako laughs, "I honestly don't know."

Bolin pouts, "It's a little depressing to know that my own niece doesn't even like me."

"Come on Bo, she really loves you." Mako tries to pick up the bags while holding Min but Bolin intercepts and grabs the bags for him, "Thanks."

"No problem, big bro." Bolin smiles and they walk off back to Mako and Korra's apartment.


	2. Part 2

When Mako and Bolin get back to the apartment, they relax on the couch. Finally looking satisfied, Mako puts Min down next to him so she can eat her water downed rice. He breathes out a sigh of relief when she continues eating, with no sign of her going to cry. "Honestly Bo, I just want to relax for the rest of the day."

"Me too. After all the training I've been doing with the rookies, has gotten me tired lately."

"Speaking of that, how are you with your training? Need any help?" Mako offers his younger brother.

Bolin shakes his head, "Nah, the season is almost over any way, thanks though. But other than that, it's going a lot better than from when we first started. At least the Fire Ferrets aren't the _worst_ team anymore." He sighs.

Mako smiles sadly at his brother, he knew how stressed he was with his new team captain status. He wasn't acting immature like he usually did; maybe he was finally growing up, "I hope so, I miss the old you."

"Hey," Bolin protests, "I'm still the brother that you know and love!"

Mako laughs at Bo's offensive side, "I meant the part of you that used to crack jokes all the time and make everyone laugh. You being so serious just isn't like you; I didn't mean it in a bad way." He pauses for a moment before adding jokingly, "Besides I'm supposed to be the serious brooding one."

Bolin lets out a laugh, "I'll try my best to get back to my 'old me' soon. We both know that you're not like that all the time." He smiles down to Min who was now flinging her rice everywhere, "Hey Mako…" He points down to his niece.

When Mako looks down his eyes widen and he immediately stops Min, "No," He gently tells her, "Rice is meant for eating, not a toy." He couldn't believe Bo and himself didn't notice her throwing rice all over the hard wood floor and furniture. And what made matters worse was that some of the grains were smashed into the rug; he was going to have a great time cleaning this up.

Suddenly, the only sound that filled his ears was Min's screaming. He looked down to his daughter who had tears going down her face. Mako immediately tried gently bouncing her up and down and shushing to her quietly, but it only made her cry even more. "I wasn't yelling at you, shhh."

Mako sighs in frustration, "Bo, can you please try calming her down while I clean this up?"

"Sure thing big bro," Bolin gets up from the couch to hold Min while Mako goes into the kitchen for the broom, and dustpan. "C'mon, your dad wasn't trying to be mean. Well, I kind of wish he was so that you would come running to me and I would be your favorite."

Mako snickers, "Maybe check her diaper?"

Bolin hesitates at first; he wasn't too fond of changing diapers, it wasn't exactly his expertise. He stretches the back of Min's diaper and peeks in to see if she left anything in there, but, it was clean. He sighs, relieved, "Nope."

"Give her one of her bottles, it's on the counter. It's already warmed up so don't worry about it. If that doesn't work try giving her the pacifier," Mako instructs Bolin as he focuses picking up the grains of rice off of the rug.

Bo rushes over to the counter for the bottle; once she has the teat in her mouth, she finally stops crying and starts drinking its warm liquid goodness. "Thank you," he mutters to himself. He continues bouncing her gently and holding the bottle.

The bottle finally becomes empty and that's when she starts crying again, "Mako!" Bolin cries out desperately, "What do I do?"

"Give her the pacifier," Mako replies as he sweeps up the rice to the best of his abilities. "Don't worry Bo, I'm almost done."

Bolin reaches over on the counter and grabs Min's blue water tribe pacifier that her grandparents gave her. "Here ya go," Bolin murmurs as he pops it into her mouth. His face falls when his niece spits it out. The pacifier falls to the floor with a soft clatter. She wails louder than before and her tears become more frequent.

"Alright," Bolin says cautiously. But then he thinks of something that might make her laugh, "Maybe this will help." He covers his face with both of his hands, his palms facing his face, "Where am I?" He waits a second before he suddenly removes his hands off of his face, "Here I am!"

The toddler stares at her uncle for a minute in silence. Once she sees what he was trying to do, she cries even harder in protest. "Don't scare her," Mako warns Bolin.

"I wasn't trying to but I guess I did." He continues bouncing her up and down, "I'm sorry," he talks to Min, "I didn't mean to scare you." 'If only Pabu was here to keep her company, I'm sure she would love him.' He thinks to himself.

He finally thinks to do the thing that most kids loved, playing with their toys. Bolin rushes over to the crate full of dolls and other various toys. He reaches in with one arm and holding the doll up to her, "Is this what you?" He asks the little girl.

Eventually, she takes it out of her uncle's hands. But she doesn't play with the doll like he expected, instead, she throws it across the room and continues screaming her head off.

Mako finally finishes his clean up of the thrown rice, well, of what he could manage to clean at least. "Here, let me try calming her down." He reaches for his daughter and Bolin hands her over willingly. To Bolin's surprise, she continues crying.

"Maybe she's on my side after all," Bolin says with a smug grin on his face.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny Bolin," Mako retorts sarcastically, he sighs, and "Usually she just stops her fussing when I hold her; she must be mad at me now from stopping her with the rice disaster."

"We have to do something. She's been crying for the past hour," Bolin whines, "Let's go out of the house and go to the park or something. She can play with other girls her age."

"Bo," Mako warns, "I told you before, Korra doesn't like having her go out of the apartment." Just then, something occurred to him, he remembered the lullaby his mother used to sing to him and Bolin when they were younger. He used to hum it to Min to get her to sleep when she was just a baby. She didn't need the lullaby anymore; she got to sleep fine lately. "Why don't we both just hum the song mom used to sing to us?" Mako smiles up to his brother.

"That could work!" Bolin exclaims. He clears his throat and with that, they start humming the sweet melody in unison. After a minute of her clearly not calming down, they give up. They both breathe a sigh as they plop on Mako's couch. "What are we going to do now? We tried _everything_."

Mako finally gives in, contemplating Bolin's request earlier, "You know what? Let's go to the park."

"It's about time you listened to me!" Bolin shouts as they get their coats on, "She'll love it there… I hope." With that, they finally leave the apartment in hopes of Mako's little girl will be happy when they do so.

* * *

**_Sorry for the long delay, I was busy with other stuff but I promise Part 3 will be up within a week! Thank you for all of the kind reviews :) They are most appreciated :D P.S. Part 3 will be the final chapter in this story. _**


	3. Part 3

They finally reach the street where the park was on hopefully when they got there, Min would be distracted by the stream, the birds, and the people.

Bolin notices people staring at Bolin and Mako, for Min was _still_ screaming at the top of her lungs. "People are staring," he murmurs to Mako as they walk down the street.

"So?" Mako questions, "Who cares what they think?"

Just then, they finally get to the park. With its luscious green grass, and the stream under the bridge with the fountain in the center of it all. And to their amazement, Min stops crying when Mako puts her down on the soft grass. The look on her face was as if she was in a different world. She was actively crawling all over, that Mako had to slow her down.

Both breathe out a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness," Bolin says. "Hopefully she stays preoccupied."

"I think she will," he smiles down at his little girl as she tries catching a butterfly in flight. He always knew his daughter was beautiful but when she was smiling like she was now; she looked even more gorgeous, just like her mother.

He then thought of how much he missed being with Korra. Being a cop and her being the Avatar plus taking care of Min, they hardly had time to themselves. Maybe he would do something special for her tonight. Mako didn't know what yet.

"Slow down there Min!" Bolin shouts, making Mako snap out of his thought of Korra. Just as she starts running towards something, Bolin catches her in time before she fell. "Be careful there." Bolin decides to take her and throw her up in the air, catching her as she made her way down to the earth.

"Bolin! Be careful with her!" But Mako stopped walking over when Min started laughing. _Laughing_. He hadn't heard that laugh in a long time, maybe it was because he was always busy but her laugh was music to his ears. He smiles at Min and Bolin. "I can't believe it," he tells Bolin as he walks closer to them.

"I know, right? I thought she would never laugh," Bolin replies smiling from ear to ear. "Maybe she doesn't hate me after all."

Mako laughs, "She never hated you, and she was just in a bad mood. That's all."

He stops throwing Min up in the air and when she's securely in his arms; she wraps her little arms around her uncle's neck, an attempt of a hug.

This makes Bolin smile even wider down at her, "Aw, thanks for the hug. I'd hug you too but I'm afraid of dropping you." He looks to Mako, "Mind if we go by the stream to see the turtle ducks?"

"Sure, why not? Just make sure they don't bite." He grins as he sees his little brother getting excited; it reminded him of when they were kids on the street. As he slowly follows Bolin, he thinks of how much he had grown up since then. It felt like yesterday when he was protecting him on the streets. He knew that Bolin would be a great father, and Mako couldn't wait to be an Uncle to his children to help him along the way.

Bolin sits on the edge of the stream and puts the now excited and happy Min down beside him. He notices some Koi fish swimming around and decides to point them out to the curious toddler. "You see them? They're called Koi fish," He notices a cautious look on her face, "Don't worry, they won't hurt you. They're completely safe."

With knowing that, Min looks down closer at the newly discovered creatures and reaches down. But before she could touch the water, Mako lifts her slightly to stop her. Instead of telling her no, he holds her over the edge of the small body of water so should could only touch with her hands. Mako knew that she would be safe as long as he held her.

She reaches one hand down into the strange new water. Min slightly and slowly moves her hand over the surface. The koi fish below notice this slight motion of the water, thinking of it as food, they head close to the surface.

When the fish start nibbling on Min's fingers, she bursts out laughing at the tickling sensation. Her laughter eventually makes Mako and Bolin laugh because her laugh was the type that made everyone laugh.

A huge splash from not too far from them, across the stream that made the fish scatter quickly. Mako pulls Min close to his chest as he and Bolin turn their attention to the source of the noise.

From across the stream, partly covered by the bushes, was a little girl. She was in dirty old rags for clothes; she must have been no older than 5 or 6. Mako noticed that she was trying to catch a fish and once she did so, looked around her to see if anyone saw; when she saw that Mako and Bolin were watching her, she made a run for it. But she was quickly stopped when she ran into the police officer who usually kept watch in this section of the park. "Hey!" The man shouts, "You know it's illegal to fish here, this is the third time I caught you. No more chances for you. Come on kid, you're coming with me." He grabs the child's arm and tugs her along as he walks away the opposite direction.

Something in Mako makes him hand Min over to Bolin and immediately go after the officer. Before Bolin could ask his brother what he was doing, Mako was jogging after the officer and the little girl. Once he reaches them, he steps in front of the officer, questioning him firmly, "What are you doing with this girl?"

"This girl has been caught fishing here many times now." The officer nonchalantly announces, "Now if you'll excuse me," He steps to the side of Mako and starts walking ahead, "I have business to attend to."

But Mako steps right in front of his path again, "So do I. Now, let her go."

"Who do you think you are? Telling me what to do? I don't take orders from you."

"Actually, you do. If you want to keep your job, I suggest you do what the chief, me, tells you what to do," Mako states.

The officer doesn't know how to react at first, until he manages to say, "Chief Mako, sir! I'm sorry; I didn't know it was you!" He stands up straight and salutes him. He was slightly surprised this officer didn't recognize him.

Mako rolls his eyes at the officer; he was acting like Mako was going to do something terrible. Of course he wasn't going to but sometimes he did like to make them think so. "How do you not know who I am?"

"We-well, I-I-I just moved he-here and I'm not familiar with-with th-the city or the people," This officer was shaking, and stuttering so bad that he thought he was about to pass out.

Mako did feel kind of bad for this newbie but he decided to let him off with a 'warning', "How about, if you let this girl go, I'll let you keep your job… and the hair on top of your head." He smiles smugly. He of course was only teasing but the officer didn't think so.

"Yes, sir," He lets go of the girl's arm but she doesn't leave, she just stands there with a frown across her face.

"Now, go back to where you're supposed to be. I'll take it from here," Mako says in his stern serious voice.

"Yes sir!" Again, the officer salutes Mako and runs off to return to his post. Mako couldn't help but giggle a little bit seeing him run off like that. He then turns to the little girl with a soft smile on his face, "So, would you mind telling me why you were fishing out of the stream?" He doesn't get a reply, she looks a little scared. "It's alright," he matches the girl's height by squatting. "I'm not going to hurt you; maybe I can start off with an easier question, what's your name?"

"Please don't arrest me!" She pleas, "I didn't mean to break the law, honest! I was just trying to find something to eat, please don't put me in jail!" She then starts sobbing and soon, tears are rushing off her face.

Mako felt so bad for the girl, he didn't mean to scare her, "Don't cry," Mako says soothingly with a reassuring smile on his face, "You're not in trouble, I promise. You're not going to go jail, now, what's your name?"

The little girl sniffles, "Akari."

"Well, Akari, that's a lovely name. Could you tell me where your parents are?" He didn't want to go into personal territory but he needed to know if someone was missing her.

She's still sniffling and the tears are still streaming down her face to her chin, "I don't have a daddy but I have a mommy."

"And where's your mommy?"

"She's in an alley by the dumpster, we live there." She pauses and Mako waits for her to continue, "But she's sick and I need to take care of her, that's why I went fishing." The child looks down in shame and asks, "Am I in trouble?"

Mako gives her a gentle smile, "No, you're not in trouble. In fact," Mako rises to his feet and outstretches his hand out for Akari to take. "I want you to meet my brother and daughter."


	4. Author's Message

I'm so sorry for the long wait everyone! I have not been inspired lately and now that I am, I have discovered that the little bit of Part 4 that I wrote is missing! :( Don't worry, I will do my best to get the last part up as quickly as I can. Especially now that I'm inspired, the process will be quicker. Thank you guys so much for the kind words and I apologize for the long wait.


End file.
